


Rapunzel Complex

by rosysea



Category: Rigel Black Series - murkybluematter
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, Friendship, Illustrated, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Kidnapping, Panic Attacks, Romance, You Decide, no beta we die like Kit, trauma from Ambiguous Artifice is discussed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27447640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosysea/pseuds/rosysea
Summary: Harry needs no rescuing from towers, but Leo keeps showing up in her window anyway.Or, five times Leo came to Harry’s rescue, and one time she knew how to save herself.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Leo Hurst, Harry Potter/Leo Hurst
Comments: 36
Kudos: 94
Collections: Rigel Black Exchange Round 2





	Rapunzel Complex

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meek-bookworm (readertorider)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/readertorider/gifts).



> Vague timeline is vague. Vague plot is vague. Vague characterization is vague. Everything is vague except Harry's boundaries.
> 
> Tip: this is a bit more special in a [dark background](https://archiveofourown.org/skins/929) ;)

****

Harry was grounded. Unbelievable. She was grounded for the second time in her entire fourteen and a half years of existence and this time she did _not deserve it._

“I told you I was going to stop by Diagon Alley and check out the new ingredients.

“Yesterday,” her mother unrelented.

“I said I might be a little late coming home.”

_“Yesterday.”_

“It’s barely past midnight.”

_“The apothecary closes at ten.”_

“You said it was fine,” Harry mumbled petulantly.

“To go shopping during the day and come back home at a reasonable time, not to disappear for hours on end and sneak back home at a less-than-appropriate time without so much as sending an owl to let me know you were alright.”

So maybe she deserved it a little bit. Better than admitting her shopping trip had turned into an impromptu kidnapping which led to the finding and rescue of a baby augurey from an illegal magical creature trafficking ring Harry had subsequently helped her less-than-appropriate friends take down. It had been a very productive evening.

“You’re grounded.”

So much for quickly sneaking in for medical supplies to take back to Leo. She opened her mouth to protest.

“No, Harry.” Lily put her hands over Harry’s shoulder and her eyes softened. “We were so worried about you. Addy wouldn’t stop fussing the whole time you were out, and your father didn’t want to leave when he was called in for work. What if you had been kidnapped or something?”

Harry looked inside herself for the most real, carefree, I-was-not-just-kidnapped-a-few-hours-ago laugh she could drag up. “Don’t be silly, mum.”

Her mother smiled at that. “I know, that's an extreme scenario, but a mother worries. And I know you're not a child anymore, but next time you stay out later than you planned, please send a note. Or find someone with a floo. Okay?”

“Of course.”

“Promise me, Harry.”

With the way Harry’s life seemed to go out of its way to involve her into the most inexplicably dangerous situations every other week as if she had personally offended Fate herself?

“I promise,” she lied, and hurried upstairs to write a letter so Leo wouldn’t wait for her.

~*~

When Harry heard a tapping by her window, she figured Leo had sent an owl in reply.

He hadn’t.

"Is this what you do now when you want to see me? Find the closest window and climb it?"

"I knocked this time!" Leo defended himself with a blinding smile.

He carefully transferred to her a small wrapped squirming bundle as she invited him inside.

“I told you how to take care of him until I was un-grounded. I gave you specific, detailed instructions." She paused. "The house is warded, how are you even here?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

 _“Why_ are you here, then?”

“Can I not just visit, lass? Also, I don’t know how to do half the things you wrote.”

“Again: specific, detailed instructions.”

“That anyone who isn't a mediwitch-in-training can't follow.”

She sighed and resigned herself to company. All in all, taking care of a wounded baby augurey with someone she cared about wasn't a terrible way to spend a night she was forcibly kept away from potion making.

He held the tiny magical bird still and stroked his head gently to calm him down while Harry went over every scrape and bruise and broken bone with a gentle spell or whatever healing potion she could get her hands on without waking up her parents.

It was almost sunrise when the augurey fell asleep curled up into Leo’s lap, as healthy as she could make him. Leo could take it from here, and should probably be on his way in case someone came to check on her. But when he got up to leave, she noticed his legs.

“Wait. Come here.”

She dragged him back down and took a look. His calves were a mess of tiny bleeding scrapes and bruises, nothing serious but sefinitely more than just a scratch.

“It's fine, lass.”

“Oh, so _I_ have to take care of myself, but you're alright going around climbing buildings in that state? Absolutely not.”

It was a quick fix, and she was done in minutes.

“There, all better.” She huffed. “Idiot.”

They heard the casual noises of her parents waking up made Leo rush over to climb down her window, but Harry stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. 

“What is it?” He whispered. “I promise I'm not hiding any more injuries.”

It was an impulse decision and she almost backed down, but this was a chance to do something Harry had been considering for a while, now.

(She could regret this. He could misunderstand. It could ruin the nice thing they had in a way unrecoverable and embitter every interaction they would have in the future.)

Harry kissed him in the cheek.

He blushed. She blushed. He blushed a little more.

"Did you…" he started. "Did you mean that as…"

Harry didn't want to give him false hope. But she also didn't want to give him nothing. Being honest did not come naturally to her, but every moment she spent with Leo seemed to make it easier to come by. And in this, honesty was important.

"I don't know how I meant it." She smiled. "But I meant it."

He grinned widely and jumped out.

Leo might not understand. He might never understand. But he accepted her, just the way she was.

And that was enough. 

Harry had really, seriously, genuinely planned on a short trip to restock her supplies, followed by a quiet evening inside to enjoy them in her potions lab. Honestly.

But some people also seemed to have specific plans for the rest of that night, plans that directly contradicted her own. Sort of.

"I couldn't help but noticing you just bought all the necessary ingredients for a very strong mind-altering potion that is highly regulated by the Potions Guild as well as the aurors, and I couldn't help but wondering if you have a permit to brew it and/or use it."

The burly man she had just confronted in a dark out-of-the-way alley produced a knife from one of his many pockets. She should invest in pockets, they were quite useful.

"You ask too many questions, kid. You're coming with me."

Harry could point out how she had made a statement, not asked a question, or she could inform him that killing witnesses tends to be more cost-efficient than kidnapping, or maybe even give him pointers about his terrible knife-fighting stance before thoroughly humiliating him in a duel and delivering him to the authorities.

 _Or…_ she could recklessly follow a shady character to an unknown location and find out whose helpless mind he was planning on bending to his will with illegal potions.

"Oh no, you have a knife and I am just a helpless nosy kid. Alright, let's go."

She didn't know if he squinted his eyes at her sarcasm or at her eagerness to be kidnapped, but he took the bait and dragged her rather forcefully around back alleys into increasingly shabby buildings.

Which was fine. Healing bruises was always good practice, anyway.

Didn’t make any effort to hide where he was going. Didn’t even try to confiscate her wand. Very incompetent on his part.

~*~

He locked her in a basement. Dark and damp and _underground,_ because that's where you keep unexpected kidnappees before you decide what to do with them.

"I did not think this through."

She had not thought this through.

“Why did I not think this through?!”

 _Harry, breathe,_ Dom insisted in her mind.

Harry _was_ breathing, she was just doing a lot of it, really fast.

_Harry, Harry, it's alright, focus._

Focus on what? The dark? The smell of dirt? The small room where she was _trapped, again, while no one knew where she was, again-_

_Focus on me. I'm here. You have your wand, and your magic, and you have me, I’m not leaving you. Focus on the differences. The texture on the wall, the tapping on the window-_

The tapping on the window?

There was a small boarded up window, high on the wall in the only place where the room was above ground. And there was a dull, harsh tapping, like someone was trying to break the wood. And succeeding.

A leg kicked through the wooden boards, letting the light in. It was followed by a tall, familiar, body.

"What are you doing here???"

"You told me to meet you," Leo explained.

"At the apothecary. What are you doing _here?_ How did you even find me?"

"Incompetent criminals. What are _you_ doing here?”

"I thought there was something suspicious about the ingredients a man was purchasing, so… I followed him.”

Leo stared.

"Did you _deliberately_ get yourself involved in something dangerous instead of trying to find an alternative or ask for help?”

"...no?"

He stared.

"...yes."

He stared. "Why, Harry. Why."

"He was ruining the sanctity of potions."

"Of course," he drawled sarcastically, "we've never seen potions being used for nefarious purposes before."

"He was ruining the sanctity of the Potions Guild rules."

"Rules you've never broke, I'm sure."

"He was doing something illegal."

"And I know you hold the law in _such_ a high regard."

She didn't want to say it, it felt like admitting a vulnerability somehow. Even though Leo had probably pieced together a lot by now. Even though she hardly remembered the hazy aftermath of being under the influence of her entire potions kit to fight off dehydration. Keeping secrets was second nature, but when it came to her personal well-being, Harry was learning her friends would accept nothing short of an honest answer.

"A mind-altering potion. He was going to- it was a _mind-altering potion_ and I-" her voice broke. “He was going to hurt someone, I had to-”

Leo placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.

"Then let's save them, lass."

He was on her side. He had promised. Whatever she got herself into, whatever her reasons were, however much she decided to tell him or not tell him, Leo would be her side.

It was that simple.

~*~

They found her kidnapper leaving a room, cursing at his bleeding hand. An angry, desperate shrieking was coming from inside, as well as potion fumes. They entered the room to see a bubbling cauldron — irresponsibly abandoned — and a birdcage over a table. Inside the cage was a small thing, long neck and thin grey feathers like a newborn bird of some kind. It was screeching and flailing at them, blood splattered on its tiny, sharp beak.

“He’s hurt,” she whispered.

Leo’s attention was elsewhere, however. She followed his stare towards the back of the room, where dozens upon dozens of cages of various sizes more than covered the walls.

He wasn’t trying to control people. He was trying to control magical creatures.

“What do we do with this?” Harry asked.

“Much as I hate it, this is a job for the aurors, lass.”

“Can I heal him, first?”

“No time.”

“Then we take him with us.”

“Must we? That’s an augurey, they’re bad omens.”

“They’re _rain_ omens. And it’s a baby. A hurt baby. I’m going to name him Archie.”

“Aw, you named it, too late. Alright, we’ll take him and let the authorities deal with the rest.”

“I’ll go grab some of my healing potions at home and meet you later.”

They were gone before her father got to the scene.

As students were sent home for the holidays, Harry had a lot of free time to do whatever she wanted.

It was the worst.

Some of her friends were busy, some of her friends couldn’t be contacted because _Archie_ was busy, and then there was Leo. Lately, her mind seemed to always return to Leo.

_Awww._

“Shut up, Dom.”

_I’ll shut up when your thoughts shut up about him._

And now she was meeting him.

_For a date!_

For a not-date. In a nice, neutral coffee shop.

_For a not-date in a café with ‘rose’ in the name, with the boy you like who likes you back._

Did she, though? Or did she like him as just a friend? Did she like him as more than a friend? Did she like him as _more_ than more-than-a-friend? Did she like him as _less_ than more-than-a-friend but more than just-a-friend?

Harry had noticed that when her classmates talked about crushes and prospective matches, they always seemed to mention physical attractiveness, but she just couldn’t see that in Leo.

_Because you’re blind._

“Oh yeah? What do _you_ think of him, then?”

_It’s not a matter of opinion, he’s objectively attractive._

“What does that even _mean?_ That his face is symmetrical? That he has muscles? That looking at him makes people want to kiss him?”

 _Forget what other people want and what other people think, what do_ **_you_ ** _feel about Leo when you look at him? What do you want to do when you think about him?_

“I think… When I think about him, I want to trust him. And when I look at him, I feel…” She took a deep breath. “I feel like I _can.”_

_There. Isn’t that enough?_

“Yes? No? I don’t know. What if he wants more?”

As she was distracted by Dom, a tapping came from the window by her table. 

“Hi.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to climb in right now.”

Leo grinned. And jumped in through the window, landing smoothly into the seat next to her in a single movement.

_“Why?”_

“Why not?”

Harry blushed and covered her face. “I am embarrassed by knowing you.”

“Aw, Rose doesn’t mind. Do you?” He asked the lady by the counter, who was distinctly unimpressed.

“There’s a perfectly good door right there.”

“Yes, Leo, there was a perfectly good door right there and here you are indulging in bad habits.”

“It’s not a habit.”

“Yet.”

She allowed herself one last smile before turning serious.

“Leo, we need to talk.”

“More ominous words have never been spoken.”

“So you know how I know that you know-”

“Let me stop you right there. Whatever I may or may not have discovered by chance while accidentally infringing upon your privacy is gone, forgotten, and does not affect my life in any way.”

“But that’s the problem, I can’t go on like nothing happened, because it _did,_ you can’t unknow what you know. I don’t want anything to change between us, but I need to know, what do you expect from me, Leo?”

He smiled. “I expect you to be you. Secrets and all. Nothing needs to change, I promise. I want to know nothing from you you’re not willing to tell me, when- _if_ you are willing to say it. And I’ll lie about it, to anyone you need me to. Even me. Even you.”

“Oh.” Harry was blushing. She could feel it in her warm cheeks and fogged up glasses. “You really meant it.”

“Always.”

Rose brought them tea. Without the weight of expectation between them, it was peaceful.

“We should do something normal,” Leo suggested. “Clear the air.”

“Normal, huh. Do you think Krait needs any help? I could take some of his boxes and draw the attention of a shady character in a dark alley so you could sweep in and save me, like old times.”

“Absolutely not, lass. Please don’t deliberately put yourself in danger on my account.”

“Alright, alright, I won’t. But I am running low on some ingredients.”

“A shopping trip in Diagon Alley between two friends who do normal things like shopping trips in Diagon Alley where nothing unexpected happens?” He teased. 

_“Hey, don’t jinx it.”_

Leo knew. The secret was out… ish. They hadn't talked about it, but she knew that he knew and he knew that she knew that he knew how much she knew about him knowing that she knew that he knew.

So he knew, that was the important part. Leo Hurst, son of the Potions Guild's aldermaster, king of the thieves of the Lower Alleys, _her friend_ knew Harriet Potter was committing blood theft on a regular basis.

And now he was here. At Hogwarts. Climbing in through the Astronomy Tower window. Where Harry- _Rigel-_ was studying. Alone. Panicking. Because she thought they wouldn't talk about it, would forget it ever happened and never mention it again, but now he was _here and how in the world was she supposed to act around him when she was Rigel but she was Harry and he was Leo and-_

“Mr. Black, I heard you’re as interested in brewing as your cousin.”

Oh.

So that was his game.

“Mr. Hurst, this is unexpected.” She tried to keep her voice level, drown the panic. “I came here to be alone.”

Leo was making a promise.

“So…. is that a ‘no’ to these rare and unique potion recipes I, er, acquired?”

She gasped. _“Show me.”_

A promise that he wouldn’t delve into her secrets unless she told them herself.

She wasn’t supposed to be at her house in Dogwood Lane in the middle of the school year. But neither was Leo, and yet here they were.

Him, frozen halfway through climbing Harry’s window, staring into her eyes — her silver gray, glass-less, Archie eyes — like he was staring into her soul. With the way Leo could tell her magical signature apart, he might as well be. When his gaze drifted down to her Hogwarts uniform, he blushed and turned around, as if he'd just walked in on someone changing clothes, not brewing controlled substances and committing capital crimes.

"Sorry, lass, I should have… knocked."

Harry stared. There was a plan for this, she was sure. Some step in her multi-layered life plan that covered well-meaning friends figuring out her secret.

"I brought pastries!" He blurted out into the silence.

It probably involved disappearing forever and never talking to anyone ever again for the rest of eternity.

"A friend bakes them and I smelled you brewing so I figured you would be too focused on your potions to remember to eat and I wasn't expecting you here because it's the middle of the school year but I sensed your magic and I thought… well… food."

There was a plan, but her brain was currently incapable of processing events.

"Can I… turn around? Please?"

"Yeah," Harry mumbled, although she was still frozen in the exact position from when he appeared the first time.

He turned back slowly, fully entering the room and closing the window.

"So… pastries?"

He said nothing about her eyes. He didn't comment on her clothes. He didn't ask about the potion, or her school absence, or her glasses. He just smiled and waited patiently for Harry to volunteer only as much information as she wanted to.

And Harry felt a weight lift off her shoulders.

****

Ending up in Azkaban wasn't a big surprise. If you plan your future throughly enough, you rarely get any big surprises, only least favoured outcomes and minor setbacks (and say what you will about Harriet Potter, she knew how to plan for contingencies). But being imprisoned in a desolate island hundreds of miles away from anyone she cared about and surrounded by nightmare-inducing creatures wasn’t Harry’s favourite outcome, either. Sure, she knew all the steps to not only escape, but also use that escape to further her own, other, _better_ plans, but in the meantime, life was four boring walls and three boring meals and a whole lot of boring, boring, boring. Worse still — no access to potions!

Her visitations were still in the process of being approved, and she had no doubt that process was being deliberately slowed down by as much bureaucracy as the Ministry could afford to throw at her case (something about being an "enemy of the state", as if saying hi to her illiterate baby sister would bring her one step closer to overthrowing the government) (then again, if she could use Addy's magical sensitivity to-)

Something clanged outside. Not the outside of the cells, like when they brought her food, the _actual outside,_ outside.

The window.

_Oh, he wouldn't._

He would. Leo heaved himself up to settle in the limited space between thick metal bars and a thousand foot drop, grinning at her like a lunatic with his golden hair windswept by Azkaban's constant downpour.

"Dare I ask how? Or even why?"

"You always do."

"You never answer."

He waved a package. She hoped whatever it was was insulated, otherwise it would be drenched right now. "I brought chips! Thought you could use something better than prison mush. Think it fits through?"

Harry smiled in all-deserved smugness.

"I'll do you one better."

She jumped towards the window, turning into a raven in midair to cross the bars, and settled beside him. She stole his food before turning back to human, but Leo barely noticed, frozen with his hand held up.

“That’s… oh.”

She winked at him.

“Since when did-” He stopped himself and took a deep breath. She could practically see the muscles in his throat forming questions.

“So how’s Archie?” She asked, trying to distract him.

“Mine or yours?”

“Both. You _are_ stalking my family, right?”

“I might be… keeping tabs on them. Your cousin is fine. Worried sick over you. I’m pretty sure he threatened to stab someone if they didn’t let him visit you by the end of the week. Does he even know how to stab people?”

She smiled. “He manages. And the other Archie?”

“I was not aware augureys could get that big. Or eat that much. The kids love him, though.”

They shared the silence and the chips, enjoying the heavy rainfall just out of reach.

“I need to tell you something,” Harry admitted.

Leo waited patiently for her to gather her words.

“I’m an animagus.”

“Oh? You don’t say? What kind of animal can you turn into?”

She laughed.

“Thank you, Leo.”

“For the food?”

“For not prying.”

“Anymore.”

“Anymore, yes, I haven’t forgotten how you almost brought everything down by trying to be helpful.”

“Oh, I learned my lesson. I shall never care about you again.”

In the hazy light, Leo’s hair looked so soft, Harry wanted to touch it. Wanted to trace the contours of his face with her fingertips, and count his eyelashes one by one. Maybe that’s what Dom was talking about when he was trying to explain what attraction felt like. Just sitting here with Leo, there was a gravity about it, pushing them closer. So she let it, let her head fall on his shoulder and let her hand tangle into his.

Things would be alright.

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> Harry: "my plans are perfect :)"  
> Friends: "did you account for other people caring about what happens to you?"  
> Harry: *loading* "does not compute" *crashes*


End file.
